Stock Market & Financial Investment News

SuperValu elects Gerald Storch as chairmanSUPERVALU announced that experienced retail executive Gerald Storch has been elected as the companyís new chair of its Board of Directors. The appointment comes after Robert Miller, who served as chairman of SUPERVALUís Board of Directors since March 2013, announced he would resign his chairman position to focus on other demands.

Supervalu upgraded to Outperform at Telsey Advisory (pre-open)Telsey Advisory upgraded Supervalu to Outperform from Market Perform prior to the open after the company reported better than expected first quarter results yesterday and announced that it is exploring a separation of its Save-A-Lot business.

On The Fly: Top stock stories at middayStocks on Wall Street began the session in positive territory but turned mixed a short time after the open. The averages gathered themselves again and began an upward drift about an hour into trading, leaving markets near session highs around noon as stocks try to break their string of five consecutive lower closes. ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., the Case Shiller 20-city home price index rose 1.1% in May to 179.03, missing a forecast for it to rise 1.7% to 180.2. Markit's services PMI for July rose to 55.2, above the expected 55.0 reading. The Richmond Fed factory index rose to 13.0 in July from an upwardly revised 7 in June. Consumer confidence fell to 90.9 in July, down from a revised 99.8 figure for last month and below the expected reading of 100. In China, the Shanghai composite index closed down 1.7%, but only after a volatile session that saw it down as much as 5.1% and up about 1% at different points in the trading day. In Europe, U.K. GDP growth in the second quarter came in at 0.7%, matching the consensus expectation. COMPANY NEWS: Earnings season continued in earnest with UPS (UPS), Ford (F), Pfizer (PFE) and Merck (MRK) each reporting better than expected quarterly profits. UPS, which said its quarterly results gave it confidence in achieving the upper end of its earnings guidance range for the fiscal year, rose more than 5%. Pfizer and Merck each raised their fiscal year earnings guidance ranges, but Pfizer advanced 1.7% following its report while Merck slid nearly 0.5%. Ford, meanwhile, gained 1.8% after backing its fiscal year pre-tax profit view and repeating that it still expects the second half of the year to be stronger than the first half. MAJOR MOVERS: Among the notable gainers was Supervalu (SVU), which jumped 19% after the company reported better than expected first quarter results and also announced that it is exploring a separation of its Save-A-Lot business into a stand-alone, publicly traded company. Also higher was GrubHub (GRUB), which gained over 5% after reporting better than expect top and bottom line results in its second quarter and issuing 2015 guidance that analysts at Stifel said "appears conservative." Among the noteworthy losers was Immunomedics (IMMU), which tumbled 34% after the company's partner, UCB, announced that two Phase 3 clinical studies for epratuzumab in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus did not meet their primary clinical efficacy endpoints in either dose in both studies. Also lower following its earnings reports was Baidu (BIDU), which fell 16.5% and was downgraded by at least four research firms. INDEXES: Near midday, the Dow was up 136.13, or 0.78%, to 17,576.72, the Nasdaq was up 36.37, or 0.72%, to 5,076.14, and the S&P 500 was up 19.42, or 0.94%, to 2,087.06.